Well, it snowed...

...but I didn't cry! (see my earlier post about spring) It was even gone by noon and we were out playing (and raking) for the afternoon in just spring jackets. But still I was not expecting to see snow out there when I woke up this morning.

The kids are having so much fun outside. Ian loves to climb up the ladder and down the slide over and over. The other day he climbed the rock wall 3 times. But it gets scary for me because 1. I really can't reach him when he gets to the top and 2. He really has no clue how to get over the top onto the play deck. Alison got up on the play deck and held him up and I had to go under the rock wall and try to push him toward her standing on my tiptoes, reaching through the small crack between the rock wall and the railing on the playdeck. It made me really nervous thinking that at any moment it could go really wrong and he would fall. Thankfully, he's decided the ladder and slide are more his speed right now.

Alison is doing better outside now that the neighbors with the dog they couldn't control are gone. She isn't in a heightened state of awareness listening for any sign that the dog might be running out of their house into our yard at any minute. It's been really nice and relaxing.

I've been raking out my flower beds and raking up the leaves in the yard into piles. Ian has decided that it is really fun to walk through the waist deep (on him) piles and to try to scatter them back out. Like I told Dan, 90% of my focus and energy is going toward keeping him from trying to run out to the front yard to chase cars (and school busses and teenagers walking home from school), the 10% I've got left is doing the best I can at yard work.

Oh and we are looking for a new vacuum. The one that I bought years ago (could it be almost 15!?!?) finally died last week. Luckily we have a dustbuster on a stick style that is kind of working, but we really need a real vacuum and soon. The options are dizzying, bag vs bagless, HEPA filter or not, washable vs replaceable filters. It gets really confusing really quick. From all the reading I've been doing (lots of online reviews of lots of different vacuums) it seems like people either love or hate their bagless vacs. I've always had one with a bag, no filters, just a plain old vacuum, empty the bag every couple months and be done with it. So the thought of emptying the dirt cup (possibly several times in one vacuuming session) and washing the filters (who knows how often that needs to be done) seems like a lot of extra work. I really need to stop thinking and start buying. There is one that is super cheap (only $48) and comes with good reviews. I thought I'd have to wait to get it shipped, but just discovered that Walmart has it in stock if I can live with a blue one instead of a magenta one (I can, who really wants a hot pink vacuum?). Even with checking into Dan's discount at work, none of the vacuums are that cheap (they don't carry this model) and the cheapest ones he could get have mixed reviews. So Walmart here I come.